This blog is dedicated to the memory of David Weintraub, who took on insidious astroturfers and won.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Poetess Friend

Once I had this poetess friend.
She mined rueful domestic goddess
Verse through eighty proof spectacles.

After her husband 
Discovered her bare ass
En flagrante delicto
With a fellow poet

The ex-husband won the car
The money the kids
And left the former

Domestic goddess
With nothing but her poetry
And a monthly tab
For alimony and child support.

I drove her to
Her weekly readings
As a public service

To the many poets
Who might capture her fancy
Once she had a few slugs
From her shiny red vinyl purse.

The reading I recall best
Happened at the Celebrity Centre
The old Scientology castle 

Off Hollywood Blvd
In the part of town
Where drunks vomit
And dogs shit

On the sidewalk
On the faces of the
Stars on the sidewalk.

Wall to wall 
Poets packed 
The house that night.
In the 1980s 

Everyone from Exene
To Henry Rollins 
Performed their poetry.

Next up the creative writing
Professor from Cal State LA
Recited his poem directly
At the domestic goddess.

(‘Twas a poem about
Creative writing professors
Hitting on their students)

I like your stuff!
I like your stuff!
I like your stuff!
He chanted

Outreaching his
Cupped hands toward
Her ruined breasts.

Suddenly I could 
No longer breathe 
The stale poetry charged air.
Outside the damp night

Cooled my face.
Fog shrouded the dead 
Soul of the city.

I walked down 
The hillside south 
Of Hollywood Blvd
Passing well lit 

Little cracker boxes forever
Far as the eye could see
Redolent of Nathanael West

Charles Bukowski
And the eight
Million poets laureate
Who commiserate 

Our poetic existence
Along a knife's edge
Of the Old Spanish Trail.

55 comments:

Tokyo Shemp said...

I like this one. The big forums simply did not allow for this kind of subversive blogging. Even Bukowski would have been run off of Daily Kos. I suppose as nothing is new under the sun, this is akin to if Jesus H. showed up to a modern church and ended up being kicked out for blasphemy or wtf. He'd be like, dudes, do you know who I am?

donkeytale said...

Thanks I really like this one too. I wasn't a fan of the Performance Poetry scene at all but it was big in LA. Actors and musicians were doing it.

They say the rock star Beck started his career as a teenaged performance poet on this scene.

I don't remember him. I drank a lot in those days. Actually the domestic goddess was a friend of my second wife. Other than omitting that detail this one too is 1000% autobiographical.

I also shopped at the scientology store that night but didn't make any purchases. Too expensive although I grokked what they were trying to do with the emotional and mental disciplining of the mind. It was interesting in a way like most successful cults but ultimately I am not a joiner. More of a loner with a boner.

donkeytale said...

I had a sudden panic attack or as Sartre would say, le nausee of existential crisis.

I bolted out the door and can still recall the immediate relief when I hit the street.

I love the streets. That's what I miss most about Boston. But I also love the rural south.

I've always been bifurcated in my tastes. Maddening in some ways but what can you do?

I yam what I yam, as the great Sailor once said before ripping off the top of his spinach can.

donkeytale said...

Henry Miller also loved the rural south. I don't know where I would be today if I'd never discovered Tropic of Cancer at that garage sale. Dead, most likely.

I've meant to write that one up forever.

For some reason I can't find the starting point.

donkeytale said...

I meant to make mention of the businessman angle.

Many people don't know that Kafka was successful in business and worked for an insurance company. Obviously, the organizational structure of business haunted his work.

The great American bard William Carlos Williams was also a successful businessman.

He is one poet I recommend to everyone.

I also heartily endorse the work of John Dos Passos. The trilogy 'USA' had a profound impact on my life as a lumpen prole.

donkeytale said...

Correction: Williams was a physician

donkeytale said...

days of struggle that never end.

Dos Passos was the leftiest of the Hemingway milieu although he became sickened by the Stalinist brutality during the Spanish Civil War in the 30s and eventually became the rightiest of the former Hemingway milieu.

Hem was more of a fake lefty.

Another great read from that era was Sartre's underrated novel "The Age of Reason."

This one about a college professor who can't seem to gather the courage to ship out to the Spanish Civil war so he hangs around Parisian night clubs and cafes every night getting hammered and trying to pick up younger women while keeping his ole lady off to the side.

I think that would be Simone De Beaviour or wtf her name was.

Really good book about the 1930s euro zeitgeist from the Parisienne perspective interesting counterpoint to Miller's take on paris as an American lumoen prole expat.

I loves me some Sartre.

donkeytale said...

All these books courtesy of the UCLA bookstore and an oversized pair of Levis big enough to slip books down the front on me way out the front door.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Boston turned out to be a clean city for the most part with tons of stuff to do. Even if one is without much money, they are in a vibrant place.

It took me to get to my later years to finally put two and two together that this Boston overall area is huge. When you are in the middle of it, there's no way to know that.

I am also finally getting the big Elizabeth Warren picture. Wow. And she used to be a Republican. I had trouble twisting my mind around that one.

She is a regular guy. I tweeted an outstanding New Yorker article on her. It was longer than usual. I love those if the topic is interesting. I could do without the lame cartoons that never have anything to do with anything. Even within themselves, the cartoons are not funny.

They are a distraction. The New Yorker would say settle down, Francis. As Bernie Sanders would say, I. Dis. Agree.

You are dropping references left and right I simply cannot keep up with.

But I deserve that with my constant name dropping.

Today so far I have been focused on Curtis Schilldog. I loves me some schadenfreude.

There was another story that caught my eye. Two blokes from Iowa or Ohio (what's the difference?) drove all the way to Beantown with weapons to shoot up some pokemon players who must have forced their panties to go into a bunch.

I LOVE Lizzie Warren. I also think Lizzie Borden was railroaded, but that's another possible blog entry for a different time.

MSNBC says Biden has not decided yet if he will run. The news cycle keeps repeating that his decision revolves around whether or not Hillary's campaign is imploding.

That reeks of ptb desperation.

Oh, and Bernie supporters are planning for a 100,000+ march on Washington to kinda sorta line up with the first debates.

Did I mention that Elizabeth Warren is a senator from Massachusetts? [/damn fricken proud][/capt. obvious]

I think she is smart to not run. She has more power now than she could ever have as president? Maybe Bernie was waiting for her decision first. It seemed like he wasn't running until he was. And that was around the time it became clear Ms. Warren with the "disarming smile" wasn't gonna do it.

Warren got into politics too late. There is the chance perhaps she will make some devil deal with Hillary, but I tend to not think so and definitely hope not.

Maybe this is why she hasn't come right out for the Bernmeister. If she supports Bernie and Hillary wins, her next endorsement of Hillsburger might not pack the punch it otherwise would.

I do see you made comments on the other thread, but maybe it is time to shift over to this page. I like your idea of a blogging system which keeps the peanut gallery schtick at the top.

Tokyo Shemp said...

I agree Scott Walker is one strange looking dude. There's a gif out there with him licking his chops while his eyes look deranged. This is a perfect opportunity if Sanders wins the American League pennant.

The Republicans have nothing.

They probably have no clue whether to help Bernie get the nod or Hillsborough.

Who would be easier to beat? Bernie is a communist. Oopsies. He isn't even the proverbial socialist. He is a western european styled commie which puts him extremely more close to FDR than Mao.

Hillary, hmmm? Will all these rumors of her being exposed for corruption come to fruition or will we get steamrolled by her machine which like you say, would probably include all the lefties who do not trust her but trust the rupugnants more.

That's a good point about Trump steamrolling over Bernie for t.v. coverage.

I like the idea of a 10% million regular guy march on the capital.

We become cynical of a social media/internet election because Ron Paul fell apart. Yet, Bernie is not Ron Paul. And we are further along in this new internet era.

If Bernie does win it all, perhaps we will need to reevaluate our collective schtick which argues that the internet is overrated.

I would say more, but an army marches on its stomach. Fake fish is in the oven.

I should write up a quick entry on Quorn. That product had me in an allergenic haze for quite a number of years.

As soon as I quit, the swelling went down everywhere. I am pumped and jacked with my new focus on health. I am within 20 pounds of my fighting weight, if I was a boxer. I'm talking flyweight with no visceral flab.

Life is amazing and beautiful despite all the troubles with the social structure. Keep hope alive.

Did I mention that Bernardo got the Flea/chili pepper vote?

https://twitter.com/flea333/status/631623927274467328
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9eNQZbjpJk

Tokyo Shemp said...

Darn, I forgot to pick up some fake tartar sauce.

Tokyo Shemp said...

I am eating to live, not living to eat which Confucius might have mentioned. I should socratise the origin of that phrase.

Tokyo Shemp said...

ugh from above. i ruined what would have been a nice paragraph. It should read like this:

Hillary, hmmm? Will all these rumors of her being exposed for corruption come to fruition or will we get steamrolled by her machine which like you say, would probably include all the lefties who do not trust her but trust the rupugnants less.

Tokyo Shemp said...

O.K., no way am I a flyweight. They are 108 to 112 pounds according to google.

My guess after consulting wikipedia is my fighting weight would be somewhere between Super bantamweight and Featherweight.

It's all what something is of value pound for pound. The rich man's/poor man's schtick is also effective.

I am a teacher even when blogging. If I had to say what I'm up to.

There's also the love of the game schtick.

That is more undefined.

The best part of the comment section is they don't have to be perfect. There's something very oppressive about main entry diary sections. They seem to have a tad extra of medium-ness.

Tokyo Shemp said...

I hope I didn't come off as racist today on Twitter. I put up videos of John Havlicek and Larry Bird. I'd pick those two plus healthy Walton as the best white dudes of all NBA time.

And with Walton, you don't get stuck with Mark Eaton and his big foot flaws.

Ainge? No he was a little bit above average, like a Courtney Lee. White guys. I guess we'd have to draw from Europe. But then the original would be skewed.

Mikan? I doubt it. Those were the mickey mouse NBA days.

I miss hoops.

McHale was underrated probably.

I forget completely. The guy Chambers on Seattle was okay.

I wonder what the numbers are for stats. One thing caught my eye. I am going from months memory. Apparently New York City was an amazing development pool for NBA talent. And now that ended. But I forget the article.

Maybe it was broken windows bullshite?

Now that I mention this, I should find it.

Tokyo Shemp said...

I found two articles for everyone's homework.

"The Mecca in Decline"
http://grantland.com/features/nyc-basketball-decline-lance-stephenson-kareem-abdul-jabbar-stephon-marbury-kenny-anderson-tom-konchalski-nba/

"The Decline Of New York City As An NBA Talent Generator"
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-decline-of-new-york-city-as-an-nba-talent-generator/

Tokyo Shemp said...

Nash (token Canadian) pg
Havlicek sg
Bird sf
McHale pf
healthy Walton C

That team would destroy. I guess plug in Maravich for Nash and I think that's the all-time greatest white man's NBA fantasy team.

Ainge would be collecting splinters on the bench.
Heinsohn would get into the game before him, but he might not translate like Mikan doesn't seem to either.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Scott Wedman was pretty good. The C's have had some of the best white guys. It seemed racist maybe, but it wasn't. Red broke the color barrier. Maybe he broke the reverse-color barrier which might have made white guys underrated. It was like a market correction with yet again the great Celtics ahead of the curve.

I do admit Magic's Lakers beat Larry. It was a good fight, and yes, the Celtics are the luckiest team in NBA history. That's having to forget about Reggie and Bias. That was tragic.

Tokyo Shemp said...

A new poll has Bern up seven points in NH.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-new-hampshire-poll_55dc947ce4b08cd3359d5f80

Tokyo Shemp said...

Rachel Maddow on MSNBC did a piece on Reagan breaking new ground by picking a vp before the nomination was decided. She thinks something may be up with Warren meeting with Biden in that way.

Wow, that would be messy. I'd lose respect for Warren. I doubt that. She is a life long scholar and thinker, not some random nutjob confusing luck for skill like Hillary.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Props to Ida B. Wells, legendary supertroll. She fricken understood the medium and went to England and met all, spread the word about lynchings. I think she was reincarnated as the girl playing Dee on Whats Happening!, but no one believes me.

Tokyo Shemp said...

The conclusion I agree with is that the rest of the world caught up with NY high school players. Similar to how the Europeans seem to be catching up to the NBA. They say woman ultimately have the bodies to outrun men, but that it hasn't happened yet. That is a distant memory.

http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1831398,00.html

That's how I saw good teaching, as a mosaic. Kids nowadays may be sharp, like you say, but I doubt they are learning any old-school wisdom, or not much. One can hope. The teachers told Hillary's crony who is the teacher union honcho, wow, to bugger off with endorsing Hillary.

Bernie could use a great debate and that march on washington to really push the coronation envelope.

Biden/Warren? Wouldn't they have announced it already? My stomach is churning. That would break my heart. Say it ain't so, Elizabeth.

donkeytale said...

No Cousy?

Rick Barry.

Dave DeBusschere

Jerry West

gail gooruch
Dolph Schayes



Tokyo Shemp said...

You have some years on me, so you are better able to compare and contrast players from today with yesteryear.

I am not sure Bob Cousy translates.

I could go to youtube and watch his highlights or some games. It would be fuzzy looking, but it's all we've got.

Maybe Bob Cousy in his prime would make Steve Nash in his prime look like a girly-man.

I do not know.

I see Bill Russell. He wasn't the tallest dude in history, but he had the so-called wingspan, BB IQ, and other-worldly jumping ability.

Who would Bill Russell be today? Where would he fit in the rankings for greatness?

I lurk an old-school Celtics forum and they debate this stuff quite frequently and it can get ugly at times. I appreciate that the dudes of today have much better access to weight rooms and steroids (HGH?) that don't get tested, they've seen it all etc., like how the world caught up to New York City.

So the old-timers who stick up for the past players always point out that one must add those components to any discussion of who Bill Russell would be if he played today's game.

With some guys like Bird and Magic Johnson, it is obvious they would dominate today's game. That's my opinion. I saw them play. I've been watching hoops (mostly Celtics) closely for a long time now.

I did forget those names. Somehow I did not think of Cousy or Rick Barry. I did read an article on Jerry West, so I could see why you mention him.

Tokyo Shemp said...

This is a marathon type article and academic, but it kinda sorta represents what your medium as conspiracy and Google sucks analysis would look like if written up by a scholar and not some regular guy who got into Henry Miller:

http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jit/journal/v30/n1/pdf/jit20155a.pdf

Tokyo Shemp said...

Wow, the dude gets into Hannah Arendt on page 7. This is not some technical article, though it is highly academic. I think this dude nailed something good on google and the internet era. Bravo to the dude. Some kudos.

Tokyo Shemp said...

I am gobbling up some good reading today. Fascinating stuff.

Tokyo Shemp said...

People like us and the people who are historic greatness above us are not going to simply disappear. There will always be pockets of awareness at a minimum.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Hmmmm, said dude also mentions Locke, Durkheim, and Max Weber. Arendt was in the Frankfurt School. These are all names I too have dropped. I have been vindicated.

donkeytale said...

Barry was grateness. He led a team to a title as a small forward. he had all the tools, good outside shot, great passing ability, superiour from the FT line where he went often.

He got somewhat derailed by going free agent to the ABA for a few years in his prime. The Warriours didn't have much cash in those days.

Havlicek one of my favourites but he couldn't carry a team as much as Barry did. Havlicek always was surrounded by grate players and was grate but to me a slight step below the very top shelf.

Barry elevated the teams he played for when there weren't a whole lot of white stars at that level.

Cousy wouldn't translate today you are correct and neither would Magic, who would be a point forward. Rondo is trad point guard like Cousy and he doesn't translate today even.

Russell was the greatest player who ever lived. Don't let anyone kid you otherwise. Heinsohn see Havlicek.

Russell would still be playing center today for a team like Golden State and would be absolute killer. Best defender in the low post alltime, how could he not be after all those match-ups with Wilt? Great rebounder and quick outlet pass to spark the break. Only Walton did it as well. Could also put up some points when he had to.

Some people would say Bob Petit also in the white category, although he was slightly before my time and the Hawks were never much on TV unless they played Boston for the national game of the week (there was one on Sunday mornings) or the Lakers on a local broadcast.

But yeah, I generally wouldn't count anyone before the mid 1960s as the game was a lot different before then.

Good potential diary topic for the next sports entry.


donkeytale said...

Main reason I was surprised at your omission of cousey was the homer factor.

Cousey I guess did revolutionise the PG, I think.

He sucked as an announcer tho.

donkeytale said...

Magic would be the power forward in GS.

Tokyo Shemp said...

I think guys like Dennis and Magic Johnson would translate to today, as I also maintain hope in the potential greatness of Marcus Smart. Gritty winner types without the outside jumper somehow find a way to make the shots when they count. Doug Flutie is someone I thought could have been an outstanding NFL hall of famer, but no one had the vision to build the team around his skill set.

That can lead to Rondo. The team with Paul, Ray, KG and even Perk and the great 2008 bench were humble enough to form a super team. They truly dominated that year from beginning to end. It wasn't even close, even with those early troubles in the playoffs getting rid of Cleveland and Atlanta. Many wonder wtf was up with Doc and the road losses in those early series. The C's then woke up and crushed Detroit and the Lakers in those playoffs.

I started out thinking about your post with the names I forgot to include. In addition to my getting into the article written actually by a woman not a dude on google/medium has shaken me from my dogmatic boredom.

There is also this weird current event with the reporter and cameraman getting killed on live t.v..

I haven't looked into it yet, but MSNBC is on in the background, and the shooter is also from the station. There seems to be a manifesto, etc., social media stuff.

The medium is going to be all over this, so I will let them do the work.

It is clearly, at first sight, yet another death by internet.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Rondo needed to improve on field goal shooting and free throws. He never did. DJ wasn't the greatest shooter, but he never let that define his game.

Rondo had hall of fame skills. He gets a bit of a pass for all the injuries, at least one of them wasn't his fault and was during his peak prime.

But Rondo also deserves condemnation for slowly stopping going into the lane for fear of being embarrassed with a hack-a-rondo defense.

That is a good point you make comparing Cousy with Rondo. Heck, even Perk might not have translated to today's game and it's only eight years later.

Perk would have needed to expand his game and not have to rely on the greatness of a KG.

Some guys are universal. I think Magic Johnson fits into that category. We are talking about winners who transcend the actual sports they so happened to end up playing.

Rondo has that too. He will kick your ass every time at connect four.

His ego got too big or something. Even his matador defense ended up deteriorating.

I love the kid, but he's no Pierce or Garnett.

I would love a starting five of DJ, Pierce, Bird, KG, and Bill Russell. I think that team would compete with any other starting five a fantasy lineup creator could conjure up for anywhere, anytime.

donkeytale said...

Too many holes in Rondo's game, correct. Not much of a defender either.

DJ was one of my favourite players always, a superb defender. He led teh Seattle team to two finals I think, including one title. Yes, Rondo has a title too surrounded by HoF.

I can't remember who played with DJ in Seattle but safe to say the cast wasn't that stellar.

Jack Sikma maybe? Gus Williams was pretty good. Need to hit the googler I guess.

Dennis Johnson was one of the great unsung heroes. Norm Van Lier with Chicago another one of those although if got a title is was late in career as a spare with another team. But he was underrated.

donkeytale said...

I went back and perused the F is for Fake thread. Classic.

Grateness.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Thanks. I just took a look. We pound out these things, then years later, it's like, "I wrote that?"

I pounded out some chunky paragraphs in that one. It also sounds a lot like your schtick.

I somewhat recall trying to develop an f is for fake ____ schtick, but I also recall the sequel bombed and I moved on. We're talking about the difference between Meatballs and Meatballs II.

I didn't mean to blow off your basketball responses. Once the new story on Bryce Williams emerged, I kind of lost the appetite for lighter subjects.

I have been catching up on my Black History knowledge. Embarrassingly enough I never looked into DuBois very closely despite studying sociology. One of the gripes on the Frankfurt School seems to be that they didn't cover race issues very much.

I learned about Ida B. Wells. Wow, what a strong, smart woman! That's supersexy to me, smarty pants women from the leftier than thou genre.

Now I am onto a Malcolm X phase. What a great guy he was. I figure based on his last couple years, he had become the torchbearer for DuBois' legacy.

I am also getting quite bitter about Farrakhan. He basically admitted he was behind the assassination in a "closed" sermon that anyone can now view on youtube.

I also see that Farrakhan has his panties in a bunch over ufo's. There we go again with the conspiracy freak angle. Is that a coincidence? Or maybe Farrakhan is doing some JTRIG subcontract work.

Prince and Dick Gregory are also into the ct's. But I would refer to them as regular guy kooks despite their widespread fame.

Tokyo Shemp said...

I'm watching this, a 1994 doc on the assassination.

Part 1 El-Hajj Malik El- Shabazz Brother Minister The Assassination of Malcolm X

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJiFiOnoEX8

It has next to no IMDB votes. It hasn't even been reviewed yet.

Afterwards I have a PBS American Experience episode on Malcolm X to watch.

Something changed for the worse in our country. Back in the day the FBI got busted and there were big arse committees and penalties.

Nowadays the MIC gets exposed, most notably by Jesus Snowden and Assange, and the result is pretty much the sound of crickets chirping.

The politics is still very interesting. Hillary made a deal with the DLC. With the internet, it has become tremendously easy to put two and two together. We have been cynical about the net, but it seems to be working out well so far for Bernard.

It used to be easy to say most folks were only on the net to buy stuff, read sports, and check stock updates, entertainment junk, etc.. But the more everyone is being pushed onto this varmint, the more people are gravitating towards questioning stuff.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Are you saying I need to check out the comments too? What was great about it? My ego thought you meant the main entry.

Yes, that was the time when DFQ2 was marching ahead, while Pffugee and MLW were heading in the wrong direction. There was definitely a Patterico bump soon after, but that was a false positive or wtf. And I got tired of the satanic panic, so that too eventually faded away as a phase.

This seems to be the best phase yet. We don't get the numbers like before, but I feel that we have nailed certain intellectual concepts. I feel we have shared with people some very profound ideas that only they can take the next step with.

Obviously I used to love to dissect old archives but definitely not so much anymore.

I am also nearing another turning point with Twitter. I feel I hit a decent groove with that place. I feel we made a significant small pond contribution in regards to Bernie and other things.

Who knows what we will ever come up with from now on? God or Buddha?

I'm sure we will continue to provide something.

Jon Voight is looking good at age 75, dude. Just saying.

We could go on for some more decades and fill the grumpy old men schtick online and pry off the fat knuckled grasp of the medium conspiracy by those afflicted with authoritarian personality disorder.

One of my best recent tweets was calling out whippersnappers for going after old codgers. I used those words. I told them to get their facts straight.

I too was afflicted with that. Obviously unless someone is a total numbnut, they know by 18 something just ain't right about Amerikkka. So each new class thinks they are the ones who will overthrow us. The problem is we aren't the enemy. We just happened to be born in earlier times.

But they need to not make a blind swipe at the older people including dead people from a century or two ago.

For example, I believe it would be the height of obnoxiousness to dismiss DuBois as dated.

He was a brilliant mind.

Malcolm mentioned another name, I forget now, he had no college degrees and ended up a famous historian/social critic. He wrote, Africa's Gift to America. Thank you goooogle..... He was J. A. Rogers.

There's no need imho for Black people to worry about what some others think. Hopefully they will take it up a notch with their historic consciousness and put Bernie over the top. I love this Malcolm dude and his family. He was so strong, proud, smart, and articulate. There's no need to fight for crap that others have already taken care of. I am speaking to younger Black people, if I may indulge. Somewhere in there is the next Malcolm, W.E.B., or Ida. It's not DeRay or Elon. It's not even Marc Lamont Hill.

I am seeing a dearth of leadership like in the old days. Of course it sucks that they all got killed.

I hope there isn't a civil war or wtf. I hope things will become sane and soon. This country is a collective basket case. Warren and Sanders and a few other politicians are our last hope. I believe that.

It won't be a race war either. And it will have to be like Anonymous. For now there are only mental cases erupting with violence. Those aren't the only ones in History who have hit a breaking point.

And of course yet again I have to provide the disclaimer that I am non-violent and it won't be me. I am speaking about the aiming higher campaign someone else spoke of. It was either Otvos or Byron. I think Byron. Maybe he quit blogging because I was too harsh on him and he realised the wrong word or two could come back to haunt him.

Fricken Malcolm X's bodyguard was an FBI sewer rat. I am so mad he was assassinated.

Bernie says enough is enough.

donkeytale said...

Byron grateness. Otvos not so much. Some interesting takes by Ormond and he had some a that codger thingie working for him.

That was a great thread especially that guy extolling my virtues.

OK, I admit he was exaggerating in his attempt to get your goat but you must feed where you get fed. Or wtf.

I admit I'm not grokking this resurgence of interest in black civil rights leaders. Is it because the resurgent civ rights movement is mostly leaderless? My favourite was John Lewis. Lewis is out there but he's not over the top striving and straining. And this man was on the front lines as a young man, getting his skull cracked for the movement.

Also H. Rap Brown. Name alone would be enough for most people. But this guy is an exemplar of Byron's aiming higher schtick. In spades.

donkeytale said...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978%E2%80%9379_Seattle_SuperSonics_season

Silas was on that team, too.

Note that only one pacific division team came in below .500 that year, and that was GS who managed to be only 6 games under. That would be playoff contention in today's Leastern Conference.

Even the Clippers were above .500.

I think this was the year after Walton went down with the devastating foot injury with Portland riding toward their 2nd straight title and a dynasty in the offing.

Also interesting that a Seattle team won the Stanley Cup in 1917.

donkeytale said...

I'm feeling the bern this morning.

Mexican food for dinner last night.

Bernie gave a firey speeech at the DLC Convention and so did O'Malley. Both complaining about the Clinton's ownership of the Demotardic Party apparatus.

Not enuff debates. They will need to make the most of the opportunity and come out punching. Not directly at Hillary as at the elites en toto, of which Hill is part and parcel.

Trump is sucking the air out of the campaign. It is pretty awesome in a twisted way.

At first everybody laughed at Hitler too, with his goofy little mustache and his cockeyed rhetoric.

donkeytale said...

Huh, I didn't recall in 77-78 when Walton broke his foot he actually came back for the playoffs and re-injured himself. Wow. That was stupid. I think that decision to play led to Walton suing the team doctor and team if I recall correctly. Too lazy to do any more googling today. I'm sick of the computer. I'm soon logging off for a day of real activity out in this weird thingie AKA "outdoors".

donkeytale said...

Although to be fair, Trump is more of a clownish Mussolini jut-jawed type.

donkeytale said...

I do recall Otvos giving me a subtle thumbs up for my "Death on the Highway" masterpiece "A Turtle's World."

I'm easy. What can I say?

BBut it seems he was into the eugenics schtick as I recall. I may be wong so I will say allegedly has was into eugenics. He had that bias toward scientism that has long cracked me up about certain elements of the whiteysphere going all the way back to my brief stint at Daily Kos.

donkeytale said...

http://shadowproof.com/2011/12/11/a-turtles-world/

I never quite got this one. The pacing is wrong, or something. But I really like the idea of the story. Its sort of an Aesop's fable updated for the postmodern era.

Tokyo Shemp said...

"In spades?" Is that an appropriate way to describe African Americans? You are better than that. Though if I harp too much on it, I will lead people to the anti-political correctness of Donald Trump.

Yes, I have become obsessed with past thinkers because the present ones are so lame. But good ones must exist. And that the lame ones get the medium floor vindicates our overall point that the game is rigged. We were trapped inside the t.v. and now the computer box.

I have so much of that older stuff to now get through. I added an hour long McLuhan youtube of a radio show done in the 80's on indie type radio. It is good.

McLuhan was prescient as much as anyone. He said a new medium device we cannot imagine will show up at some point to replace the t.v..

It's just words. Yet when they are put together in a unique way, it becomes a schtick.

I agree Otvos was not in the same league as Byron. It's not even close.

From a quick look at the H. Rap Brown wikipedia, I can see why you mentioned him in regards to the aiming higher concept.

It seems they have apprehended the man who killed the Houston area cop while he was pumping gas. That to me is not aiming higher. It is acting stupid. Eric Frein was stupid.

It is a Chinese finger torture experience. The cops get killed. Since they are random, no one can tell if there is anything other than a twisted way to rationalise the motive. The cop is replaced with someone who could actually be a bad cop. The potentially fake good cop is gone and now in his place is a real bad cop.

The cops then push forward with their copaganda. We are sooo persecuted. Our jobs are sooo dangerous. And the constitutional crisis continues.

The Bryce Williams dude was way out there deranged. He took words like field and swinging and in his mind he felt persecuted. I guess we will swing on over meant oh I am Black and swinging is done in the jungle? The reporter is out in the field became about slavery and the cotton fields. Someone brought in a watermelon, and to Bryce Williams, this was a gag done for all the whiteys in the newsroom at his own expense.

DeRay went off on an original report or two claiming the gunman was a white man. He said oh, the white man is considered a former disgruntled employee. If he was Black, the talk would be about a terrorist. Then oopsies, Bryce was Black. He was a disgruntled employee and was extremely ill in the noggin.

DeRay delete his post, but then it appears Breitnuts confronted him over that, then he explained that he had been going by earlier, mistaken reports. Fair enough, but don't scrub. And there's no way we can dismiss that he is part and parcel of Teach for America or the recently resurfaced tweet of his in which he condemned Chelsea Manning.

John Lewis looks familiar. I think he's been on t.v. or something. He is still plugging away in Georgia as a Congressman. That's cool.

This is where we can no longer accept moving the pile a few inches then punting for field goal position. This is not Miami-Patriots in the snow game waiting for Mark Henderson to clear the ground for a 3-0 win or the game would never end.

The weirdest part of learning about Malcolm X, and I hate to say it, is he appeared to have a death wish. Why not protect yourself at least a minimum amount? Why not frisk people coming into the Audubon? The NOI basically put a fatwa or wtf on his head.

I think Billy Joel had a tune which represented this angst despite being a truly bad tune and almost noise pollution. Only the good die young.

It's more like only the good get assassinated.

(continued)

Tokyo Shemp said...

"Also interesting that a Seattle team won the Stanley Cup in 1917."

Huh, wut?

It appears you are correct, although I am not sure how that is interesting. It'd be like finding a rare clip of Charles Chaplin clipping his toenails. Not so interesting.

You know what's interesting? Those 90 round boxing matches where the other boxer never had to go to his corner for knockdowns. Tyson would have been all over that non-rule. We'd be talking about Iron Mike Johnson, not Jack.

Aaah, I have a new idea for a blog entry. What was the impact of the upside down punch? Was it what it now seems, a real life version of that basic boxing game, knock your block off? I can't believe I remember that game's name. I googled and confirmed the memory.

On second thought, such an entry would be rather technical and not very interesting.

The actor Robeson along with Johnson also merit some decent kudos. They paved the way for Malcolm X. Or maybe it was Ida B. Wells.

This abuse of people by cops needs to come to a halt very soon. Bryce spoke of how he was a popcorn machine ready to explode or something.

One thing I truly grokked from sociology is that next to nothing happens in a vacuum.

I am not a big fan of O'Malley, but I must say I like hearing that he is pissed off at the DLC. We can only hope that the coronation backfires. It is bizarre. Hillary acts as if this email thing is a Breitbart type smear hoax. She also has a big mouth and tends to make ridiculous comments. She doesn't reach the level of Trump or Farrakhan with his UFOs, but it can get darn near as unsettling.

The R.F.K. assassination quip was atrocious. I do not understand how she survived that one. She was saying Obama might be assassinated like R.F.K. was allowing her to steal Obama's tiara?

She also used a reference to the Holocaust in response to the repugnants wanting to round up illegal immigrants and deport them.

That is a trickier quip to attack. We all love to mention Hitler. Perhaps it is a response to the ridiculousness of the looser Godwin who said as soon as Hitler is mentioned, the discussion is over. Nope, sorry, everyone loved Jerry when he quipped to DeNiro in King of Comedy, "Hitler made a mistake!"

There is the fake right, the fake left, and then regular guys. That's how I see it. The medium as conspiracy keeps the masses locked into a debilitating cynicism. Bernie and Elizabeth Warren are apparently the antidotes. Or we can hope. I am still not yet at the Counterpunch level of cynicism.

It is very corrupt what Hillary and her elite allies are doing with the coronation process. I hope it backfires. I do not like living in a basket case society. I actually wouldn't mind a normal life. Maybe I am more in the Dwight Howard camp than I'd like to admit. I think that was what Dwight meant. Superman is screaming out to humanity, "Wtf? You are messing with our breathing." It is a simple idea but could possibly be turned into yet another blog entry.

I am trying to make my phases shorter. My main point is what you wrote above, that they do not make thinkers and activists like they used to.

Bernie Sanders is akin to the hail mary pass. The problem is the audio went on the fritz or there was some breaking news which cut into the game, and we do not know how much time is left or if the caught hail mary made it into the end zone.

You were prescient to call out Hillary early and often. I didn't realise how downright corrupt she is. There are a million stories in the naked blog city. One eccentric, somewhat insightful blogger cannot be everywhere and explain everything.

This is what Bernie is saying. He can be elected, but he is going to need a political revolution behind him.

We can grab hold of the zeitgeist bus steering wheel, but without a blogging revolution powered by sincere keyboard warriors behind us, the bus is going to break down.

Tokyo Shemp said...

For every action, there is an equal reaction?

We know that youtube is making clear what has been known for a long time, that people are being abused by police.

Is the lightning fast communication of information through the internet doing the same for folks now going after police? Is it making something that has always been happening only appear as some sort of new phenomena? I do not know.

"Man punches officer in the face during stop"
http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/crime/2015/08/18/officer-punch-in-face-troy/31894889/

And the cops are blaming social media for doubling down and ginning it up over police brutality and mayhem.

I tell everyone it's the Chinese finger torture thingie, but no one believes me. The ptb's have a fake narrative for everything. Can the medium as conspiracy ever be dismantled? Can the internet ever become a steering device for authentic, positive social change or are we all f***ed?

Tokyo Shemp said...

"Feeling the Bern With the Youth Vote"
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/feeling-the-bern-with-the-youth-vote

donkeytale said...

The spades thingie should have come with an irony alert. It was not meant as racist but to bring the reader's racist reaction to the surface.

Interesting that you quote the old action/reaction formula.

For it was the Buddha, the original scientist, who described the concept of "dependent origination."

All things exist only in relation to each other.

donkeytale said...

I understand your deepening cynicism however I myself am not falling into that "all or nothing" trap that states unless Sanders wins we are doomed. Look at history. The GOP was doomed with Nixon's impeachment? Hardly. Did LBJ's huge win in 1964 create a lasting legacy of progressive politics? Uhh, no.

So, we are not any more or less doomed with or without Sanders. In fact the laws of relativity as we are discussing here will also work themselves out regardless of which contender wins the election. For the most part the US system cancels itself out in many ways and the eventual result tends to the center. Yes, some of this has broken down as the parties tend more to the extreme version but clearly the founding fathers wanted a system that was not extremist.

This is why blaming Obama for not creating a political revolution is stupid. First of all, Obama read his mandate as bringing back the compromise and the interaction between government branches that the founders envisioned. Only progressives saw a progressive mandate for which the votes simply were never there.

The Bern notes correctly that the people have to do more than elect a champion and then sit back in front of the TV for 4 years expecting everything to go their way. People must stay active. Obama voters thought it was all over with teh election. They stayed home in 2010 and 2014 and allowed the GOP (whose activists NEVER quit working) enough power to stop just about anything from passing. Frankly, that Obama got some things done and kept the economy doing better than the western Euros, Japan and maybe even China at this point looks really good from here. Had the economy failed to revive at all during the O years you would not be looking at Sanders (or Hillary) having any chance at all.

Keep this in mind. The Sanders campaign exists only in relation to the Obama Presiditzy.

They are interconnected.

One must always avoid bipolarity. Twitter excepted. Perception is everything. Sanders winning or loosing is part of a herstorical process that unfolds in real time on our watch.

Clearly, he is having impact, especially in Iowa and NH.

Where we need to focus is on how he is doing in more typically multiracial Dem electorates such as Cali, NY and Texas.

This the essence of the Nate Silver analysis. Sure, the bern is formidable in the Dem Primaries among states loaded with white middle class progressives who dislike Hillary.

Guys like us, IOW.

His strategy is a good one following the tried and true liberal approach to create and build momentum in the early states but what will happen when he comes up against a large minourity
primary electorate in S. Carolina.

Remember in 2008 how Bill went off the rails when Obama won SC? That's because Bill, a genius political strategist himself realised that Obama had broken down Hillary's black-brown voting bloc and killed her chances because O also had the DKOS young white progressive vote (which Sanders now has). Bill knew Hill was doomed after S Carolina.

This is pretty simple stuff. I'm actually growing bored with the story until we start seeing more polling than just Iowa and NH. I fully expect Bernie will win both. It's what comes after that will make the difference for his candidacy.

donkeytale said...

More donkeytale prescience in that F for Fake thingie from several years ago:

"I believe 95% of science, especially social science, is F for Fake. Worse than meaningless.

Job programs for geeks."

And now they are finally admitting that most social science is based on garbage.

http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-tried-to-replicate-100-psychology-experiments-and-64-failed

Tokyo Shemp said...

Okay, in the future I'll just ignore it when you make racist comments without disclaimers or when you post outright lies as truth such as Bernie called Blacks "You people" twice. Gotcha.

And thanks for making it clear that it is personal economics as to why you have been such a big supporter of Obama. I knew it. I intuited that previously once finding out you are not a political operative.

No one cares about Texas. Sorry. Until that foul mess of reactionary fascism is cleaned up, no one cares how you vote. Of course Utah, Arizona, probably Florida and all the other nutjob states like Texas will vote Republican or DINO.

What I take from all this is it was very clear why a lot of people felt you might be a political operative. Now it is clear that you love your money and privilege.

It's ironic that you show so much love to LBJ, as if he was the great progressive of the past. F that. It's the ballot or the bullet.

So you can take your move the pile by inches and go roll in your money with it.

And I'm not exactly grokking why you keep linking to old threads and expect me to run to them and read old posts. Talk about boring. Maybe make some original points? Perhaps reflect and proofread more?

I already gave my formula for a Bernie win which you seem to be repeating above but with less explanation. It is based on the old formula of blue and red states. Assholes like Texas are lost. Same with Utah and Arizona. Bernie will need to win big chunky delegate states like New York and California.

You make sweeping statements, for example, that 95% of academics is fake. I agree. But unlike you, I refer to greatness like C. Wright Mills and point people to the longstanding mickey mouse debate between positivism and the sociological imagination.

You don't seem to ever want to learn. You rarely respond to what I actually post. You are a contrarian, period, who is very happy with how the stock market has gone during the Obama years.

The best part of your schtick has pertained to the evils of mass incarceration. I'll concede that.

Tokyo Shemp said...

I'm sorry if that came off as nasty. That wasn't my intention or at least not the primary motive.

You deserve great credit for coming out early and often against the Hillary coronation and for holding your ground with a more optimistic outlook for Bernie (while still a mountain a climb) in contradistinction to the talking heads, such as Marc Lamont Hill and Jason Johnson taking the anti-prescient route.

My mind has never been clearer. The key is to lose the ego. That is the greatest struggle of them all.

Maybe we should be more like McLuhan and admit that we don't always agree with what we say. McLuhan picked up some decent social media skills. I saw him in an earlier interview in front of a crowd. You could tell he was a bit unformed for that part of his schtick.

It was still good. It's the difference between early and later Beatles.

McLuhan also offered the idea that we are thinking too much about McLuhan. That man was a genius, period. It wasn't about his formulating an interesting catchphrase and then running with it.

I am so happy to have focused in on Malcolm X. Wow, what a modern, incredible story, all of it. From his family history to everything. Amazing and eye opening.

One dude interviewed that one thing most people might not have realised is that Malcolm was shy!

They also spoke of how he had one of the quickest minds ever invented by God.

Oh, I also finally saw that Mike Wallace was kind of a dick. But that's for another comment or blog entry down the road, if it ever happens.